Overview

Production Details

Editorial Reviews

For the Record

Audio Compact Disc

Label:
RCA

Category:
Pop/Rock

For the Record

UPC:
078636763323

Release Date:
08/25/1998

Original Release Date:
08/25/1998

Number of Discs:
2

Tracks:[Five O'Clock 500 [#], Keepin' Up [#], How Do You Fall in Love [#], Tennessee River, Why Lady Why, Old Flame, Feels So Right, Love in the First Degree, Mountain Music, Take Me Down, Close Enough to Perfect, Dixieland Delight, The Closer You Get, Lady Down on Love, Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler), When We Make Love, If You're Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band), (There's A) Fire in the Night, There's No Way, Forty Hour Week (For a Livin'), Can't Keep a Good Man Down, She and I, Touch Me When We're Dancing, You've Got the Touch, Face to Face, Fallin' Again, Song of the South, If I Had You, High Cotton, Southern Star, Jukebox in My Mind, Forever's as Far as I'll Go, Down Home, Here We Are, Then Again, Born Country, I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know Why), Once Upon a Lifetime, Hometown Honeymoon, Reckless, Give Me One More Shot, She Ain't Your Ordinary Girl, In Pictures, Sad Lookin' Moon]

Even though the title should be taken with a grain of salt -- an enormous number of these 44 songs did reach number one, but a handful only peaked at two or three -- there's no denying that For the Record is an impressive achievement. Spanning two discs and two decades, For the Record contains nearly every great song Alabama recorded, plus three new tunes. If any single album provides definitive proof as to why Alabama is the most popular country band of all time, this is it -- they make this appealingly polished, hook-heavy, radio-ready mainstream pop sound easy as pie. Alabama may have had a couple of album cuts every now and then that were quite good, but they were at their best turning out hits as a singles band, as such contemporary classics as "Tennessee River," "Mountain Music," "The Closer You Get," "Forty Hour Week (For a Livin')," "Jukebox on My Mind," and "Down Home" illustrate. Consequently, it's hard not to view For the Record, with its virtual cornucopia of hits, as the definitive Alabama collection, maybe even the definitive Alabama album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi